Chronology

The empire year by year, from the rise of Cyrus to the death of Darius III (c. 559–330 BCE): the anchor events, each linking to its article. Dates follow the standard chronology; where the sources allow only an approximation, the date says so.

Before the empire the Medes and the rise of Persis

c. 585 BCE: Astyages succeeds Cyaxares as king of the Medes, overlord of the Iranian plateau.

Cyrus II, the Great c. 559–530 BCE

c. 559 BCE: Cyrus II becomes king of Anshan in Persis, a vassal of his grandfather Astyages.
c. 550 BCE: Cyrus defeats and captures Astyages after Harpagus deserts with the Median army; Ecbatana falls and the Median empire passes to the Persians.
c. 547–546 BCE: Cyrus campaigns in the west; Croesus of Lydia is defeated and Sardis falls. Harpagus reduces the Greek cities of Ionia in the years that follow.
539 BCE: Babylon falls to Cyrus; Nabonidus is deposed. The Cyrus Cylinder proclaims the king's restoration of the cults.

Cambyses II 530–522 BCE

530 BCE: Cyrus dies campaigning in the northeast (the traditions differ on how); he is buried at Pasargadae. Cambyses II succeeds.
525 BCE: Cambyses conquers Egypt; Psamtik III is defeated at Pelusium and the Saite kingdom becomes a Persian province.

Darius I 522–486 BCE

522 BCE: The year of crisis: the man ruling as Bardiya takes the throne; Cambyses dies returning from Egypt; Darius and six conspirators kill the king and Darius seizes power. Revolts break out across the empire.
522–521 BCE: Darius fights the year of rebellions, Babylon, Media, Persis and the eastern lands, and records his victory in the trilingual inscription at Behistun.
c. 518 BCE: Work begins on the terrace at Persepolis; Darius reorganises the empire into satrapies with fixed tribute and reforms the coinage with the daric.
c. 513 BCE: Darius crosses the Bosporus and campaigns beyond the Danube against the Scythians; Thrace and the northern Aegean come under Persian control.
499 BCE: The Ionian Revolt: the Greek cities of Asia Minor rise against Persian rule with Athenian and Eretrian help; Sardis is burnt.
494 BCE: The revolt is broken at the battle of Lade and Miletus falls; the cities are retaken and resettled.
490 BCE: The first invasion of Greece: Datis and Artaphernes sack Eretria but are defeated by Athens at Marathon.

Xerxes I 486–465 BCE

486 BCE: Egypt revolts; Darius I dies and is buried at Naqsh-e Rostam. Xerxes I succeeds and puts Egypt down.
c. 484 BCE: Babylon revolts against Xerxes (twice in these years); the rebellions are suppressed and the great Babylonian archives fall silent.
480 BCE: Xerxes invades Greece: the canal at Athos and the bridges over the Hellespont; Thermopylae falls, Athens is taken and burnt, and the fleet is defeated at Salamis. Artemisia fights in the king's fleet.
479 BCE: Mardonius is defeated and killed at Plataea; the fleet and army are beaten again at Mycale. The invasion of Greece is over.
472 BCE: Aeschylus stages the Persians at Athens — the earliest surviving Greek tragedy, and a Greek meditation on the defeat at Salamis.

Artaxerxes I to Darius II 465–404 BCE

465 BCE: Xerxes is assassinated in a palace conspiracy with his son Darius; after a bloody succession Artaxerxes I takes the throne.
c. 460–454 BCE: Egypt revolts under Inaros with Athenian support; the revolt is crushed and an Athenian fleet destroyed in the Delta.
c. 449 BCE: Fighting between Persia and the Delian League winds down (the so-called Peace of Callias, whose historicity is debated).
c. 440s–420s BCE: Herodotus composes and publishes his Histories, the fullest surviving narrative of the empire's rise and the wars with Greece.
424–423 BCE: Artaxerxes I dies; the brief reigns of Xerxes II and Sogdianus end with Darius II on the throne.
410–407 BCE: At Elephantine in Egypt the temple of the Judaean garrison is destroyed in a local conflict; the community's Aramaic papyri record its petitions for rebuilding.
407 BCE: Cyrus the Younger is sent west as the king's viceroy in Asia Minor and throws Persian support behind Sparta against Athens.

Artaxerxes II 404–358 BCE

404 BCE: Darius II dies; Artaxerxes II succeeds. Egypt breaks away under Amyrtaeus and stays independent for sixty years.
401 BCE: Cyrus the Younger marches an army with over ten thousand Greek mercenaries against his brother and dies at Cunaxa; Xenophon leads the survivors home and writes the Anabasis.
c. 400 BCE: Ctesias of Cnidus, Greek physician at the court of Artaxerxes II, writes his Persica — court history, scandal and all.
387–386 BCE: The King's Peace: Artaxerxes II dictates a general settlement to the exhausted Greek states; the cities of Asia are recognised as the king's.

Artaxerxes III to Darius III 358–330 BCE

358 BCE: Artaxerxes II dies after a forty-six-year reign, the longest of the dynasty; Artaxerxes III succeeds and enforces order on the western satrapies.
343 BCE: Artaxerxes III reconquers Egypt, ending its sixty years of independence; the empire stands whole again.
338 BCE: Artaxerxes III dies (later tradition blames the eunuch Bagoas); the short reign of Arses (Artaxerxes IV) follows.
336 BCE: Darius III takes the throne; in Macedon, Alexander succeeds the murdered Philip II.
334 BCE: Alexander crosses the Hellespont and defeats the satrapal army at the Granicus; the cities of Asia Minor fall in the campaigns that follow.
333 BCE: Darius III is defeated at Issus; his family falls into Alexander's hands.
331 BCE: The decisive defeat at Gaugamela; Babylon and Susa open their gates to Alexander.
330 BCE: Persepolis is taken and its palaces burnt; Darius III is murdered by his own officers as he flees east. The Achaemenid empire ends, and with it two centuries of Persian rule from the Aegean to the Indus.

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